1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to high density memory devices based on phase change based memory materials, including chalcogenide based materials and other materials, and to methods for operating such devices.
2. Description of Related Art
Phase change based memory materials are widely used in read-write optical disks. These materials have at least two solid phases, including for example a generally amorphous solid phase and a generally crystalline solid phase. Laser pulses are used in read-write optical disks to switch between phases and to read the optical properties of the material that differ in the two phases.
Phase change based memory materials, like chalcogenide based materials and similar materials, also can be caused to change phase by application of electrical current at levels suitable for implementation in integrated circuits. The generally amorphous state is characterized by higher resistivity than the generally crystalline state, which can be readily sensed to indicate data. These properties have generated interest in using programmable resistive material to form nonvolatile memory circuits, which can be read and written with random access.
The change from the amorphous to the crystalline state is generally a lower current operation. The change from crystalline to amorphous, referred to as reset herein, is generally a higher current operation, which includes a short high current density pulse to melt or break down the crystalline structure, after which the phase change material cools quickly, quenching the phase change process and allowing at least a portion of the phase change structure to stabilize in the amorphous state. It is desirable to minimize the magnitude of the reset current used to cause transition of phase change material from crystalline state to amorphous state. The magnitude of the reset current needed for reset can be reduced by reducing the size of the phase change material element in the cell and of the contact area between electrodes and the phase change material, so that higher current densities are achieved with small absolute current values through the phase change material element. Even with small devices, the reset current remains a design limitation for high density and low voltage integrated circuits.
As the phase change memory cell structures are made small, a limiting factor on the density of a device incorporating an array of phase change memory cells is the array architecture, including access transistors, word lines and bit lines through which individual memory cells are accessed for read, set and reset operations. Typical array architectures are shown in Lung, “Spacer Chalcogenide Memory Method and Device,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,864,503; and Wu, “Self-Aligned Resistive Plugs for Forming Memory Cell with Phase Change Material,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,545,903. In the '503 patent, the architecture for an array of phase change memory cells is shown in FIG. 3, and includes access transistors (called isolation transistors in the '503 patent) that are formed on a semiconductor substrate, and a conductive plug formed in a contact via is formed between the drain of each access transistor and an electrode in the corresponding phase change memory cell. The array size is limited by the need to space the access transistors apart from one another in the semiconductor substrate, or to otherwise isolate adjacent access transistors. One array architecture that provides for high density is shown in Kang, et al., “A 0.1 mM 1.8V 256 Mb 66 MHz Synchronous Burst PRAM”, ISSCC, February, 2006.
It is desirable therefore to provide devices with an array architecture supporting high-density devices, and to facilitate applying relatively high currents to selected devices for reset operations at low voltages.